Busy busy on the Oregon coast!

Pastel sunset near Lincoln City, Oregon. Copyright (c) 2011 Wendee Holtcamp

Today can be summarized in one word: food! Too much probably because although it was absolutely delicious I am completely stuffed still, hours after last eating. We stuffed so much into today (in addition to food) that I took enough photos to completely fill my memory card for my SLR camera and because - you know how you always forget SOMETHING on a trip? - well what I forgot was an extra memory card. I normally do not like to delete anything until I download it and back it up on my external hard drive but alas I have 4 more days to go. So let's hope and pray my trusty laptop makes it until I get home!

At any rate it's past midnight so I will just post a few of my favorite images from the day.

This morning, Rebeccah (Director of COCA) and I had breakfast at the Salishan Spa & Golf Resort, and then we decided on a whim to go hiking at Drift Creek Falls trail in the Siuslaw National Forest. It was a long, winding one-lane road to the trailhead, and then a 3 mile round-trip hike to a waterfall. Here are a few photos. Above - Mossy rocks!
I'm not sure what this purple bluebell-like flower is, but I will have to find out!
Me hiking the trail. It was pretty mushy and muddy.
The trail goes to a suspension bridge across Drift Creek.
Another view of the bridge.
And that overlooks the waterfall - awesome.
A funky view of a cedar tree on the trail.
Next we went back to Salishan Resort where we had lunch at the Sunroom (same place as b-fast) and met up with another person on our trip - Eileen. She knows another writer I know, which is always cool. Then we went down to the Taft district of Lincoln City and this beautiful beach... It had been drizzly on and off all morning, with some surprise "sun peaks" thrown in but then after lunch the day gave us all with a completely unexpected surprise - a sunny rest of the day. It was breathtaking to see the coast all lit up with sunshine. It has been a rainy spring here and though I've not been here the whole time for the rain season, I know that I got a very lucky break with the sun.
So we met up with some folks from Lincoln City and they have the COOLEST program where they "hide" these beautiful glass floats (examples of which I had pics of yesterday) all up and down the coast. It's called Finders Keepers and they say that float fairies leave them for kids of all ages to find. Every year they do that many - so since it's 2011 they will hide 2011 floats on the beach this year. They don't put them out all at once but bit by bit so people can look for them. When you find it, you keep it. They're beautiful. And we even got one as a gift!
I was giddy with the sunshine so walked all over the driftwood-city beach and shot photos. All these pics are taken in the historic Taft district/beach of Lincoln City.
Next we went to the Lincoln City Culinary Center, which is owned by the city and they offer cooking classes and other cool stuff for locals and tourists. We had our own cooking class and made raisin scones, crepes with homemade Nutella (hazelnut-chocolate spread-recipe to come), strawberries and whipping cream. ZOMG they were soooo good! This is Eileen cooking crepes. I have some good ideas I'm going to try to pitch to Food & Wine. This place was freaking awesome! You can come on Sat nights and have an adult cooking class with a meal and wine and sometimes celebrity chefs. Sharon Wiest is the Executive Chef, and she taught us today. They really focus on local ingredients - farm to fork - and in fact most of the restaurants we have visited here do so. Local, sustainable, and organic is big biz in Oregon.
On the way to dinner, we stopped by Devils Lake State Natural Area on a whim, and I loved the miniature daisies. Of course I had to put a couple in my braids. We came up next to this van with these two dudes, one with binoculars, just staring at the lake from inside their van. I asked what he was looking at and he didn't really have an answer. I was joking like are you looking at people in their houses? Are you looking at birds? He was like, yea, I like birds. But he didn't really sound like a birder. Anyway so then the other lady on the trip mentioned that she thought he was getting high... and I bet she was probably right. What can I say, it's Oregon.
We had dinner at the Chinook Winds Casino's Rogue River Steakhouse restaurant, and I was already sooo incredibly stuffed from the crepes and scones and coffee BUT of course I had to eat! They brought out 6 different appetizers, then I ordered lobster, and then they brought out three different desserts. And yes, I'm now so stuffed I think I am going to puke. But the food was so good!! One of the desserts was creme brulee and I never liked it before, ever. But this made a creme brulee lover out of me! They also had local marionberry cobbler and a flourless chocolate cake. Wow. Just had a small bite of each of those but wow!
After dinner we were heading to the hotel but had to stop and photograph and watch the sunset. One of my favorite things to do is photograph sunsets so naturally I filled up my memory card with them. Here are a few of my faves.



LOVE this one!

We are staying at the Surfrider Resort hotel, which sits right on the beach (and I have a jacuzzi tub in my room!). After we got to the hotel, it was about 9pm and it was still fairly light out, so I took a walk down to the beach by myself to shoot photos and just listen to the sounds of the surf. There was a couple who had made a fire down there so I walked along the other direction and shot this cool rock formation in the light of the waning sun.

Oregon coast is paradise!

Sunset this evening, through my window at the Salishan Spa & Golf Resort, Gleneden Beach, OR
All photos copyright (c) 2011 Wendee Holtcamp

I've been in Oregon since Thursday and I want to share all my photos of my trip so far (including visiting my dad's Crackerbox Palace - aka log cabin in the woods) and a gathering of writers in Portland and seeing my 7th grade BFF but first, I'm going to share the images of the beautiful Central Oregon coast because I spent the last half of today exploring and photographing and it's freshest on my mind -so this is 'live and in person'! Right now, I'm sitting in an incredible hotel room complete with a gas fireplace, couch, King-sized bed, massive bathroom - and a view you see above...

The natural beauty of Oregon inspires me. Yes, I'm from here, and yes my visit is hosted by the Central Oregon Coast Association or COCA but I'm not just saying that because COCA is sponsoring my trip. Anyone who has been to the Oregon coast will pretty much say the same thing! It rains a lot and there are often clouds, but the entire coast (that I have seen before - and more this trip) has absolutely breathtaking scenery.

At any rate, this morning I left my dad's place and headed south of Portland and when I got near Corvallis, headed coast-ward up and over the mountains to Newport, a small town right near the coast. There I met up with the Executive Director of COCA who is driving me around (we are meeting up with a couple others tomorrow). We have only had half a day on the coast so far but I've taken so many pictures already that I wanted to upload them or I'll never be able to catch up when I get home. So here are some images to whet your appetite! Most of these I took with my Android phone, which has some apps that allow me to create cool-looking images, but others are from my Canon SLR.

First we went to the Depoe Bay Whale Watching Center (run by Oregon State Parks - and free to the public). Gray whales can be spotted here year-round. Right now they are migrating northward, and just minutes before we got there a mother and calf swam by but we didn't see any. Bummer! Orcas, seals and sea lions can also be spotted. We saw a couple of sea lions on the jetty (visible with the multiple pairs of binoculars provided at the center).

We drove a mile up the road to Boiler Bay where we thought maybe we would spot the mother and calf, but no luck. However it was beautiful! Notice the waterfall on the right.

Next we stopped in at Alder House III - the "oldest glassblowing studio in the Pacific NW."
Buzz Williams, owner of Alderhouse, shows us how he creates glassware.

ome glass balls (floats) in the studio.

Loved the look of all the colorful glass artwork!
Funky tilt lens effect on a St. Francis statuette.

I had hardly eaten all day so was very excited about dinner. We ate at the 3-star Bay House Restaurant in Lincoln City. I had the Alaskan halibut with cucumber, baby bok choy, coriander, meyer lemon, celeriac, and micro-arugula. It was tender, flavorful, and beautifully presented.

Owner Stephen Wilson sat and chatted with us for a while. They use as much locally farmed veggies and meat as possible and did so way before it became popular to. I also got a lesson in what it means to be 3, 4, and 5 star. Wow! They have to jump through hoops to get those stars! Interesting stuff.

Holy yumness, the truffles were gorgeously presented and freaking delicious. In fact I nibbled two halves, then took the rest back to my hotel room where I had them in front of the fireplace with a cup of coffee!

There was a guy catching sand shrimp out the window as we ate - can you see him on the right?These shrimp are apparently bait for catching halibut. While we ate, the sun peeped out of the clouds and then it gradually cleared up! Sun on the Oregon coast - I couldn't ask for more! The forecast had called for rain all week so I'm very happy. I thought this image was Boiler Bay but it turns out it's actually Siletz Bay that the Bay House overlooks.

The sun through the clouds over Siletz Bay near Lincoln City (where the Bay House sets). And you know what? My stepdad's parents lived here for many years, and I spent one Thanksgiving there as a kid. We are going to go visit their house on the trip. My stepdad's dad passed away many years ago and his mom moved to Sequim, WA but now she lives near them in Dallas.

After dinner we walked down to the bay/beach and I accidentally shot this with my phone. I thought it looked totally surreal and beautiful. I want to start a website with accidental photos!

This is my room at The Salishan Spa & Golf Resort. The room is huge, and decorated in ranch style luxury. This pic doesn't do it justice!
And that brings us to... the sunset over the bay!

But before I leave you for tonight I wanted to give you a taste of the images I shot at my dad's log cabin, aka the Crackerbox Palace as he calls it. This is a window of the bathroom from the outside.

And the cabin itself. Very small, quaint, rustic. Home! I spent every summer here and lived with my dad here for two years when I was 8 through 10.